CAMBRIDGERACING | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CUAC , the Cambridge University Automobile Club had for some considerable time been instrumental in assisting the British Motor Industry in general and BMC and Ford in particular with the world record speed/distance attempts that gave the advertising of the products a very factual air of achievement. The team of enthusiasts that gave their time and considerable effort to get the logistical side of the attempt on track for particular booked dates on the French parabolicaly banked track at Monthlerley just outside Paris france. This famous venue has been the French equivalent of our MIRA for many years. The french industry to test their products at sustained high speed gaining valuble data for their very active interest in the overall aerodynamics and fuel efficency that could only be verified by the sustained testing .Today the world has moved on. The whole of this process being undertaken by computer models before anything is made in solid metal, CUAC had had very positive results with the BMC Austin Healey and the Ford Anglia and Corsair. That was in the 50s our last visit to the circuit was in the in the late 60s when the constant pounding that the highspeed track was sustaining was begining to take its toll giving the start of serious deterioration in the integrity of the conrete sections , This made the future rather open to question unless the french government were to put in hand the structural repairs needed. The circuit racing team was initially to be .Arthur Taylor, Gerry Boxall, and Brian Whitaker.Others were to join later as time went on. |
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The CUAC team at Monthlery with some of the people that raced under the CambridgeRacng banner | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
To give an indication of the true shape of this remakable palce | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The ex Nancy Mitchell Healey at scrutineering at Le-Mans with the Clarke brothers in attendance . |
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The plot was for us to build and prepare a team of three A35 cars with the A series engine cost being important factor , | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
To this end an approach was made initially by, I, believe Arthur Taylor to cost out a budget pricefor a seasons racing using 3 Austin.A35s " The Cambridge Racing " team was being born, The ?A? series engines tuned to be competetive but not to the degree of being unreliable, most usefull with the mini over the horizion .. The support vehicle was a new Ford Popular van, owned by Arthur Taylor we fitted it with a Murry overdrive (twogear levers) which gave us 6 Speeds., the 100E engine was tweaked a bit with a four branch manifold etc. It worked well in fine warm weather but in cold damp conditions rather prone to carb icing in the downdraught Solex from the standard installation. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Gerry Boxall& Brian Whitaker | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The new cars were delivered with consecutive numbered registrations all three in black with white stripe and distinctive coloured grilles for easy ident. 771 was yellow 772 was red 773 was blue Cambridge of course.they had varying Specifications 771 was pair of SUs flowed 1/1/4 772 was a pair 1/1/2 the car with the 2x 1/1/2 was the quickest and as such all three were eventually brought to this spec in spite of the lap times being much less different than Don originally thought | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Late at Snetterton due to colision with sheep | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The A35s were built and prepared and carried out a very sucessful season for relative newcommers, with a results stream of 8 firsts 11 seconds 5thirds for the 1959 season. This year also saw the emergence of Doc shepherd as a force in the uk saloon car racing world in an A35 then proceeding on to his legendary A 40 . John Richard Aley joined the fray with some competition gaining vast experience with his own MINI JRA 85 using the car as his daily transport gave him an a considerable edge eventaually becoming the owner of TVE772 the quickest of the three A 35s. Lancastian John Clarke joined the Cambridge Racing team with his ex Nancy Mitchell ex works Healey100/6 this car was campaigned very well by Nancy in the Rally field. John was to run the car to get experience towards qualifying for Le Mans. the following year. |
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Following the 59 saloon season Arthur Taylor fancied an open wheeled car At, this time the transition was in hand from front engine to rear engine in all formsof open wheeled racing including the ,F1 ,F2, F3 brigade. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arthur Taylor in car Ray Simpson from Castrol and yours Truely | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Eric Broadley of Lola Cars had produced hisFormula Junior front engined rear drive visually very similar to a scaled down Vanwall a very attractive car in the pure traditional perception of single seater race car.Two cars were ordered and delivered. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
These cars were to have Ford power units. To get to grips with the production of a race unit to compare with the success levels enjoyed with the BMC a series Don purchased a 105 Anglia to use as a rolling test bed.. The upgrades went ahead to the engine and as such progress was being made inspite of the many problems the 105 engine showed as it progressed towards a race worthy unit grades of valve material specs and loadings of the valve gear received early atention. Don had distinct preference for SU carbs as opposed to the Italian fixed jet Weber Carburettori; Arthur Taylors Lola had a 4 x1/14 SU set up at one stage. The second Lola in the team wa sto be for Jerremy Bates an aquaintence of Arthur Taylors, hailing from the borders of Scotland , attaining astonishing averages on his way down to Cambridge in his "Wilkie" tuned Jaguar XK150 the high eighties being the norm without any motorways or speed cameras in those halcyon days. |
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.Jeremy had a college contemporary that was one of the leading lights at Cosworth being a college chum it made sense for the power unit for his Lola to be sourced from there in view of the rate of progress made at Cambridge, Don decided the BMC Cooper development work had to advance and it took precedence.over the Lola project , The A series work had great potential for the establishment of a future in the A series tuning world especially with the mini coming along , and the quite considerble technical assistnce coming from Abingdon comp dept. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arhur Taylor at Snetterton for initial shake down. Sticks out a bit doesent he ??? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arthur Taylor being a mere 6 ft3 tall had the problem of having rather more of himself exposed to the slip stream than was efficient or desirable , Arollover would have been a real problem ,in spite of me adding several inches on to the height of the roll over hoop. Jeremy in the other car had a completely different set of problems due to a climing accident in earlier years he had had frostbite on his toes leading to amputation . He had been fitted with a special set of surgical boots to enable him to drive , which he did very well .I made up some special speciat adaptions to enable him to function at a level that was competetive at the time, After much practice the start line procedure was finalised and with the aid of a hand throttle link I enginered into the system just for starting, He adapted well and grew in his confidence with the system, to the degree that he put up some pretty remarkable performances bearing in mind his disability this was all happenng wth the Mini Just over the horizon , Of the two he was marginally quicker possibly due to his natural agression stemming from his determination to not let his handicap get in the way of his chosen sport. |
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Both cars and the tow vehicle were painted in the same team colours black and a broad white stripe front to back. . in order to get the transporting organised at a reasonble cost , Arthur Taylor comisioned some one local to him in Birmingham to build a double deck trailer one that could be towed behind the support Ford Popular van . The lower deck runners were removeable to give a run up facility for loading the top deck ., when the two wheeled unit was tilted down at the rear. This worked well apart from one factor the trailer weighed about twice the weight of both the cars, In todays world would be totally illegal . It towed quite well once the weight distibution was sorted , but it was not something one would want to get out of shape as the cart could easily wag the horse . The van only having a 3 speed box was a bit of a problem with wide gap between 2nd and third so in order to make the whole thing viable we fitted a Murray overdive to the rear of the Ford box , giving us 6 speed and the option of playing tunes with the two gear levers , after a little practice it worked well . |
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Memories of this outfit stalled Iced up on the hill leaving Grantham one mech having to slurp fuel into the carb from a can to get to the top to enable a rest on levelground, the man in question was Frank Hamlin of NZ |
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Two car trailer and tow car and yours truly | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lola Jnr Lookalike The Mighty Vanwall | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
After the launch of this revoloutionary little car that the mini was. It was not long before the call was made to get it into motor sport. The Cooper version was on the way but the saloon racing regs of the time favoured the 850. GP2 form. Later on with much more power from the re-design brought about by the Cooper variant in conjunction with the Westlake operation. Don concentrated on the BMC involvement which naturally diverted some effort from the Lola project . The transision of open wheeled front engine rear drive cars in favour of mid engine rear drive as opposed to the saloon car world going the other way to front engine front drive.Don doubted the long term value of the Lola project to his business. His interests focusing strongly on the Mini revoultion rightly so with all the now historical successes of people whom we had the pleasure to call customers. The racing fraternity readily apreciated the huge potential that the little car possesd , with is phenominal road holding , taking saloon car racing to an altogether higher plane than was previously thought posible . |
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There follows more detail of other racing from cambridge place during my time with Don Moore>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.... |